!!!! MILD SPOILERS !!!!
One of the main criticisms from people who dislike BROKEDOWN PALACE is the character motivation . Since I dislike this movie I couldn't help but notice the shallow characterisation and perhaps the characterisation and my dislike of the movie are linked ?
A couple of young American women Alice and Darlene lie to their parents that they're off to Hawaii when in fact they're going to Thailand . it's never actually explained why they feel the need to lie since from what little we see of their family leads us to believe they get on well with their parents . It should also be pointed out that both Alice and Darlene are obviously old enough to look after themselves so why lie ? there's also another problem later on with the characters of Alice and Darlene later on where they sneak into a plush hotel and order drinks on someone else's tab . This sets up a chain of events that leads to the two girls being convicted of supplying heroin . Now I'm saying they deserved what they got but ask yourself this : If you were staying at an expensive hotel and someone was ordering expensive cocktails on your hotel bill what would your reaction be ? Would you be sympathetic ? Neither would I and the more you think about it the more you come to the conclusion that Alice and Darlene have brought their problems on their selves
This actually sums up the problem with BROKEDOWN PALACE , you never feel any great empathy let alone sympathy for Alice and Darlene . They come across as being fairly dumb . They never think of checking their bags before they go to the airport because if they had they might have noticed a couple of kilos of smack in their luggage . One of them happily signs a sheet of paper even though it's written in Thai and later on they bribe a guard so they can escape . Being completely dumb neither girl understands that escaping from prison and escaping from a country are two entirely different things , they're still wearing a prison uniform , have no false passports and no money so how are they going to get back to America ? Obviously America has a surplus of bimbos . If you think that's daft wait till you see Alice at the end
At the risk of sounding sexist I doubt if BROKEDOWN PALACE was made to be anything more than a chick flick involving prison with the theme being how far would you go to save your best friend and I doubt if it will appeal much outside of the market it was intended for
One of the main criticisms from people who dislike BROKEDOWN PALACE is the character motivation . Since I dislike this movie I couldn't help but notice the shallow characterisation and perhaps the characterisation and my dislike of the movie are linked ?
A couple of young American women Alice and Darlene lie to their parents that they're off to Hawaii when in fact they're going to Thailand . it's never actually explained why they feel the need to lie since from what little we see of their family leads us to believe they get on well with their parents . It should also be pointed out that both Alice and Darlene are obviously old enough to look after themselves so why lie ? there's also another problem later on with the characters of Alice and Darlene later on where they sneak into a plush hotel and order drinks on someone else's tab . This sets up a chain of events that leads to the two girls being convicted of supplying heroin . Now I'm saying they deserved what they got but ask yourself this : If you were staying at an expensive hotel and someone was ordering expensive cocktails on your hotel bill what would your reaction be ? Would you be sympathetic ? Neither would I and the more you think about it the more you come to the conclusion that Alice and Darlene have brought their problems on their selves
This actually sums up the problem with BROKEDOWN PALACE , you never feel any great empathy let alone sympathy for Alice and Darlene . They come across as being fairly dumb . They never think of checking their bags before they go to the airport because if they had they might have noticed a couple of kilos of smack in their luggage . One of them happily signs a sheet of paper even though it's written in Thai and later on they bribe a guard so they can escape . Being completely dumb neither girl understands that escaping from prison and escaping from a country are two entirely different things , they're still wearing a prison uniform , have no false passports and no money so how are they going to get back to America ? Obviously America has a surplus of bimbos . If you think that's daft wait till you see Alice at the end
At the risk of sounding sexist I doubt if BROKEDOWN PALACE was made to be anything more than a chick flick involving prison with the theme being how far would you go to save your best friend and I doubt if it will appeal much outside of the market it was intended for